The newly turned thirty-year-old British actor, Dominic Monaghan, full name Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan, has accumulated a significant amount of public attention and critical acclaim ever since he snagged the role of Merry Brandybuck in Peter Jackson’s super successful The Lord of the Rings trilogy and then landed the role of Charlie Pace on the popular dramatic TV series Lost.
Even though he was born to English parents, and spent many of his latter growing-up years in England, Monaghan was born on December 8, 1976, in Berlin, Germany, and lived there until he was twelve, at which point his family moved to Heaton Moor, Stockport. Monaghan speaks German as his second language.
After graduation from Anne’s RC High School, Monaghan studied drama, English literature, and geography at Aquinas College. During college, he landed his first major acting role as Geoffrey Shawcross, the sidekick of Hetty Wainthropp, played by Patricia Routledge, in the BBC TV series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, from 1996 to 1998.
In 2000, Monaghan appeared in the made-for-TV film This is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and in the TV series Monsignor Renard.
But it wasn’t until 2001, when Monaghan starred as Merry in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, that Monaghan suddenly skyrocketed into fame along with many of his co-stars. The first film adaptation of J R R Tolkien’s trilogy also starred Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Billy Boyd, and Hugo Weaving.
Monaghan went on to reprise his role as Merry Brandybuck in the sequels: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.
In 2003, Monaghan also took the lead in the film short An Insomniac’s Nightmare.
The following year, Monaghan snagged his second best-known role as Charlie Pace in the hit series Lost, co-starring Matthew Fox, Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, and Evangeline Lilly.
Monaghan has been romantically linked with his Lost co-star Lilly, ever since tabloid photos of the two making out were published online and in several magazines in late 2005. The couple has neither confirmed nor adamantly denied the alleged relationship.
Other interesting facts about Monaghan are that he is an outspoken environmentalist, he owns a small forest in India, he has a tattoo of the Elvish word for "nine," and has reportedly admitted to being a meterosexual.
YUDDY
